Section

Business

Markets, industries, and the forces reshaping the region's economy.

Page 6

Business

Iran's Rial Falls to a Record 2.5 Million per Dollar as the War and the US Blockade Squeeze the Economy

The currency hit a new low on Tuesday, just 27 days after the previous one, as a US naval blockade on Iranian oil and fresh sanctions compound the damage of seven months of war.

Sep 30, 2026/2 min read

A covered arcade of the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, illustrative of the economy affected by the rial's fall and photographed in August 2015

Business

Paramount Skydance Launched a $44.4 Billion Debt Sale to Help Pay for Its Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover

The dollar and euro denominated senior secured notes, offered only to qualified institutional buyers, are meant to finance the studio's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and refinance existing debt, though the sale is not a condition of closing.

Sep 29, 2026/2 min read

The Melrose Avenue gate of Paramount Pictures' Hollywood studio lot, illustrative of Paramount Skydance's notes offering and not a Warner Bros. Discovery site, photographed in 2005

Business

MGM Resorts Is Weighing a Bid for People Inc, Months After the Magazine Publisher Tried to Buy MGM

Shares of the Food and Wine and Travel and Leisure publisher jumped more than 11 percent on a Wall Street Journal report that MGM is considering buying it back, after People Inc dropped its own bid for the casino company weeks earlier.

Sep 29, 2026/2 min read

MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip, illustrative of MGM Resorts' reported interest in People Inc, photographed in October 2017

Business

FAA Holds Back Boeing's 737 Max 10 Over a Software Fault, and the Shares Drop Sharply

Administrator Bryan Bedford said certification will wait until the agency is satisfied about a flight-guidance glitch affecting go-arounds, pushing back an approval that had been expected in October.

Sep 28, 2026/2 min read

Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, Washington, where the 737 Max family is built, photographed in April 2019

Business

Trump and Xi Agreed to Cut Tariffs on $30 Billion of Goods and Open an AI Dialogue at Their Washington Summit

The eight-point agreement reached during Xi Jinping's visit also extends the trade truce two months past its November deadline, sets up a bilateral trade council and creates a channel for reporting AI-related incidents.

Sep 27, 2026/2 min read

The White House with Marine One on the South Lawn in Washington, illustrative of the presidency hosting the summit and not the Trump-Xi meeting itself, photographed in July 2012

Business

Costco Closed Fiscal 2026 With $9.2 Billion in Profit as Membership Fees and Online Sales Kept Climbing

Fourth quarter net sales rose 11.2 percent to $93.9 billion and digitally-enabled sales grew almost 20 percent, with results lifted further by a one-time benefit from tariff refunds the company says it partly passed on to members.

Sep 27, 2026/2 min read

A Costco Wholesale Club warehouse store, illustrative of the retailer's fourth-quarter results and not a specific location named in the earnings report, photographed in November 2021

Business

Royal Caribbean Agreed to Pay $3 Billion for Half of Sandals Resorts in a Bet on All-Inclusive Vacations

The deal values the Caribbean resort chain at $6 billion and pairs Royal Caribbean's cruise scale with Sandals' all-inclusive resorts, with the joint venture expected to close in early 2027 under shared leadership.

Sep 27, 2026/2 min read

Harmony of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship, illustrative of the company entering the Sandals joint venture, photographed in October 2024

Business

Wall Street Posted Its Best Week in a Month as an AI Rally Outweighed a Volatile Treasury Yield

The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq gained 2.1 percent as chipmakers and software stocks led gains, while Brent crude slipped below $98 a barrel and the 10-year yield swung between 4.95 and 5.20 percent.

Sep 27, 2026/2 min read

The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, illustrative of US equity trading and not this week's session, photographed in September 1963

Business

Volkswagen's Electric Car Orders Overtook Petrol and Diesel Orders in Germany for the First Time

The shift, driven by the sold out ID. Polo, has been fast enough that Volkswagen is cancelling extra shifts at its Wolfsburg petrol car plant and adding shifts at its electric factories in Emden and Zwickau instead.

Sep 27, 2026/2 min read

The Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, where the company builds its petrol and diesel Golf and Tiguan models, photographed in April 2009

Business

Oracle Sent a 'Force Majeure' Notice Over Its Own Flagship Stargate Data Centre in New Mexico

The notice, sent to the Blue Owl Capital unit developing Project Jupiter, protects Oracle from liability if the site misses its 2028 target, after delays to the natural gas pipeline meant to power its fuel cells.

Sep 26, 2026/2 min read

A data centre server room, illustrative of the Stargate campus described and not Project Jupiter itself, photographed in March 2013

Business

BASF Approached Evonik About a Takeover That Would Reshape Europe's Chemicals Industry

The world's largest chemicals group has sounded out Evonik's management and its controlling shareholder, the RAG-Stiftung foundation, about a deal valuing its German rival at around twelve billion euros including debt.

Sep 26, 2026/2 min read

A LyondellBasell chemical plant in Wesseling, Germany, illustrative of the European chemicals industry BASF and Evonik compete in, photographed in June 2014